Top Asian News 3:42 a.m. GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A massive search effort has identified the possible seabed location of the crashed Lion Air jet, Indonesia's military chief said Wednesday, as experts carried out the grim task of identifying dozens of body parts recovered from a 15 nautical mile search area. The 2-month-old Boeing plane plunged into the Java Sea on Monday just minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board. "Based on the presentation of the head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, the coordinates of the suspected body of the aircraft have been found. We will send a team there to confirm," said armed forces chief Hadi Tjahjanto.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A defense lawyer says Pakistan's top court is set to announce a final verdict on a Christian woman sentenced to death in 2010 on blasphemy charges. Saiful Malook, a lawyer for Asia Bibi, says the Supreme Court will announce a verdict on Wednesday, and that he is "hopeful for Bibi's acquittal." Bibi was arrested in 2009 after a quarrel with Muslim women. Islamists have demanded her execution, and a governor and a minister of minorities were assassinated in 2011 for supporting her. Insulting Islam is punishable by death in Pakistan, and the mere rumor of blasphemy can ignite lynchings.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — She was a self-described "adrenaline junkie," and he took "wow-worthy photos" of the couple posing at the edge of cliffs and jumping from planes that appeared on social media and a travel blog that attracted thousands of followers. In one post at the Grand Canyon this spring, 30-year-old Meenakshi Moorthy even warned daredevils who try to snap selfies from dangerous heights: "Did you know that wind gusts can be FATAL???" The caption accompanies a photo of Moorthy sitting on the edge of the canyon's North Rim. The couple's latest trip turned out to be their last. Moorthy and her husband, Vishnu Viswanath, 29, who were Indian expats living in California, fell to their deaths in Yosemite National Park last week while taking a selfie, the man's brother said Tuesday.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Chinese intelligence officers and hackers working for them have been charged with commercial espionage that included trying to steal information on commercial jet engines, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. The indictments named two officers working for the Nanjing-based foreign intelligence arm of China's Ministry of State Security and six other defendants who allegedly conspired from 2010 to 2015 to steal sensitive turbofan engine technology used in commercial aviation. The hackers used spear phishing to deploy malware and other means to intrude into a French aerospace company that was developing the engines with a U.S. company, prosecutors said. The suspects also hacked into aerospace companies in Massachusetts, Oregon and Arizona that manufactured engine parts.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A well-known adventurer dug herself out of an avalanche on a New Zealand mountain Wednesday morning, while two guides climbing with her died. The three were roped together as they tried to reach the summit of Mount Hicks on the South Island. "I'm absolutely broken," survivor Jo Morgan told Television New Zealand. "Two of my very dear friends lost their lives today, under tragic circumstances. I just got really lucky." Morgan told the television station they had reached a slope that was unstable when the avalanche started. "They were buried and I was buried but had my face out so I could breathe," she said.

ILAGAN, Philippines (AP) — A strong typhoon blew across the northern Philippines on Tuesday, setting off landslides that left at least six people dead and forcing thousands to flee from villages that were still recovering from a deadly storm last month, officials said. Regional police Chief Superintendent Rolando Nana said authorities were attempting to verify a report that a landslide buried a government building under construction in Natonin in Mountain province, trapping more than 20 people. Several landslides blocked roads and prevented policemen from reaching the area, he said. Typhoon Yutu weakened considerably from its earlier super typhoon status before slamming into the Philippines' northeastern Isabela province before dawn.

HONG KONG (AP) — Louis Cha, a Hong Kong journalist and best-selling Chinese martial arts novelist, has died at age 94 after a long illness. The Hong Kong newspaper founded by Cha, Ming Pao Daily News, said he passed away Tuesday at a Hong Kong hospital. Cha's novels about ancient Chinese swordsmen have sold millions and are among the most widely read in the Chinese-speaking world. They inspired film adaptations, TV and radio dramas, comic books and videogames, and greatly influenced Hong Kong popular culture. They include "The Heaven Sword and the Dragon Saber," about a kindhearted hero who is indecisive but uses his kung fu skills to unify a divided gang and is elected its leader, and "The Eagle-Shooting Heroes," about a tragic hero who sacrifices his life in guarding the country against invading Mongolians.

BEIJING (AP) — Marijuana may be legal now in Canada but at least three Asian governments are warning their citizens to avoid it, including the specter of possible arrest for Japanese and South Koreans. China, the latest to weigh in, didn't go that far. Its consulate in Toronto issued a statement dated Friday reminding Chinese in its jurisdiction — and students in particular — "to avoid contact with and use of marijuana for the sake of ensuring your own physical and mental health." Canada legalized the sale of recreational marijuana on Oct. 17. The Chinese statement, posted on the consulate's website, included a long explanation of the Canadian and provincial laws, advising them to read it carefully to avoid running afoul of the new regulations.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Five members of the Afghan Taliban who were freed from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in exchange for captured American army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl have joined the insurgent group's political office in Qatar, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Tuesday. They will now be among Taliban representatives negotiating for peace in Afghanistan, a sign some negotiators in Kabul say indicates the Taliban's desire for a peace pact. Others fear the five, all of whom were close to the insurgent group's founder and hard-line leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, bring with them the same ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam that characterized the group's five-year rule that ended in 2001 with the U.S.-led invasion.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Thousands of Sri Lankans marched in the capital on Tuesday to demand the president immediately convene Parliament to resolve a deepening political crisis following his sacking of the prime minister. More than 10,000 people, including lawmakers and rights activists, marched in Colombo, shouting slogans and displaying banners and placards. They then held a rally near the official residence of the dismissed prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe. The protest came a day after Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya warned of possible violence if lawmakers are not summoned immediately. President Maithripala Sirisena dismissed Wickremesinghe and his Cabinet on Friday and replaced him with former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa.